Ericeira and part of Viana do Castelo areas cancelled altogether
In what will be seen as a victory for fishermen, various alterations (reductions) have been made to off shore wind farm concessions.
The Ericeira area has been removed from the Offshore Renewable Energy Allocation Plan (PAER), while the northern part of the Viana do Castelo area has been reduced and the southern area removed altogether.
“As a result of the weighting carried out, the need to reduce the impact on fishing activity and the environment was recognised,” says the document published today in state gazette Diário da República – pointing out that “the area north of Viana do Castelo has been reduced, the area south of Viana do Castelo has been eliminated, the Leixões area has been adjusted slightly, and the Ericeira area has been eliminated”.
The PAER, approved by the Council of Ministers last month, defines the areas and volumes of national maritime space that can be used for the commercial exploitation of offshore wind energy.
The plan was subject to public discussion between October 30 and December 13, 2023 and received 148 participations.
The project, which began under the previous Socialist government, envisaged the creation of an offshore wind farm in Portugal with 10 gigawatts (GW) of power. It earmarked huge swathes of coastline, taking in Viana do Castelo, Leixões, Figueira da Foz, Ericeira-Cascais, and Sines as areas for potential renewable energy exploration.
Fishing industry associations went on the attack, stressing the death such activity spells for coastal fishing and marine fauna.
The project’s own Strategic Environmental Assessment said that installing offshore wind farms would have to lead to “the scrapping of vessels” and reduced fishing (something with devastating impact on local economies).
Thus the revised plan published providing for a total area for exploitation of 2,711.6 km2, which includes an area of 5.6 km2 in Aguçadoura (Póvoa de Varzim), for the installation of non-commercial research and demonstration projects, which represents a decrease of 470 km2 compared to the proposal submitted for public discussion.
An area of 229 km2 is planned in Viana do Castelo for a power of 0.8 GW, 722 km2 in Leixões (2.5 GW), 1,325 km2 in Figueira da Foz (4.6 GW), 430 km2 in Sines (1.5 GW) and 5.6 km2 in Aguçadoura.
“The final area of the PAER makes it possible to achieve an installed capacity for commercial projects of around 9.4 GW and to accommodate environmental impact mitigation measures that are deemed necessary in the environmental impact assessment of offshore renewable energy projects, as well as the spaces needed to safeguard navigation corridors and minimise the wake effect between wind farms,” says the document.
At the end of December, minister for agriculture and fisheries José Manuel Fernandes said he believed that “the interests of Viana do Castelo and Vila Praia de Âncora have been safeguarded”.
Speaking to Lusa and RTP in Norway in June last year, director-general of the Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM), José Carlos Simão, said:”Once these new areas have been published , the auction will then be launched,” suggesting that for it to be as beneficial as possible for society, it should focus on “the areas that have the least impact on other activities, that have the most suitable physical characteristics for the projects to be good and that produce energy at the lowest price”.
There has yet to be a reaction from the numerous fishing associations that campaigned so passionately to ‘save’ the sector.
Source material: LUSA
